Waking Up Grateful

I went to the Diocesan Clergy Retreat recently.  Brother Curtis from SSJE was our leader.  I love him.  Each day we were there he looked us each in the eye, and in his gentle, soft voice, thanked us profusely for our work as clergy, encouraged us in our ministries and told us how very loved we are.  How often does someone say such things to you?  I just wanted to bring him home and have him read me a bedtime story every night.

One practice Curtis encouraged us to work on is to thank God at bedtime, not only for the day past, but for our whole lives - in effect - to say thank you and goodnight to God as if we knew it was our last chance to do so - to "pray a completeness," as if our work was over and done.  And then, if by some stroke of good fortune, we find ourselves still alive in the morning, to wake up and receive the new day with gratefulness and joy.

It's a popular thing to do these days to make a gratitude list - writing out at least 10 things that you can honestly say you feel thankful for each morning:

1. I'm grateful for my warm bed
2. I'm grateful for the good breakfast I'm about to have

etc.

The retreat brought the gratitude list idea to a new level for me. I realized that I'm often and easily grateful for those things that are obvious and pleasurable.  Who wouldn't be?  However, there's a gratefulness in me that I don't always tap - a deeper gratefulness that I truly do have inside - which is a kind of buried, dormant gratitude. 

I remember when I was a teenager I broke the toe next to my pinkie toe on my right foot.  The pain of that broken toe disrupted all of my usual activities - from walking to sleeping.  I remember thinking, "Wow - you don't know how important a little toe is until it's not functioning!"  I know that if tomorrow I were gasping for breath, I would realize how much I took my easy breathing today for granted.  I know when the recent hurricane took our power for three days, I realized how much I take unspoiled food, light, and warmth for granted - things I normally have in abundance every day and night.  Curtis' words made me think about how I'd rather notice and really appreciate the gifts I've been given without having to lose them first. 

So I'm working on taking careful notice of the many basic and important things God has given me today.   Through doing this, I've also begun to notice that a real, profound and powerful gratitude is already there inside me to be mined and felt all the time.  And mining this treasure out of my own depths puts me in touch with how much God loves and supports me today - right now!  (Which feels a whole lot better than resenting what I think I should or could have and don't.)

Mining this deep gratitude helps me receive the day "as a gift rather than a given," as Curtis put it, and it also keeps me from worrying so much about what to do with this day, or worrying about what might happen in the course of it.  In the state of gratitude, everything that comes along during the course of a day is also a gift. 

Working on uncovering your deepest gratitude is a wonderful thing to do during Thanksgiving week.  I've found myself far less concerned with making the perfect meal or writing the perfect Thanksgiving sermon this year.  Instead I've been working on unwrapping each hour as a new gift to be savored and have found this gratitude practice to be as satisfying as a Thanksgiving feast.

Effort

So, I was watching the Memorial Day Parade go by on Monday while sitting at our church's bake sale table.  We'd decided to show some hospitality during the parade, which goes right by our front lawn.  We had a bake sale and we gave away free hot dogs, offered parking and put out chairs for people to sit on.  This hospitality had taken a group of people considerable effort to plan, and and many people took the trouble to bake.  As I was watching the parade, I was struck by the considerable effort it must have taken not only to plan the whole parade but also for each group marching in it to get ready for the event.  Even those guys who drive the funny little cars wearing funny little hats - they have to maintain all those little cars and drag them all the way here from Milford - and I thought of all the effort they make in raising money for really worthy causes.  It also took the parade goers effort to pack up their lawn chairs and picnics and get to the parade before the road closed.  And lots of people had also put considerable effort into planning and having picnics and cookouts back home after the parade was over.

And then I thought, it's really interesting how people get up and do stuff.  Instead of planning this whole elaborate day, it would be a lot easier just to eat, sleep and watch television, but here we all are out enjoying a great day and a great parade together. 

Today as I write this, the church is abuzz with people getting ready for our big GLOW Festival tomorrow.  This event has taken monumental effort on the part of many people in and out of the church.  I hope (despite the forecast of rain) that people will make the effort to come tomorrow and hear the lecturers who have planned their presentations, see the exhibits our vendors have prepared, hear the music our performers have practiced and eat the food our cooks and bakers have made.  A great deal of effort has gone into creating this one day festival of health and wholeness for the Trumbull community.  Why did we bother? 

I think at the heart of this question is our human desire - and need - for community.  We need to get together, enjoy each other's company, create things, share things, and reach out and help others.  This is the reason there are family meals, non profit agencies, civic organizations, churches, mosques and temples, governments and towns.  Human beings have the need to be together instead of just alone on their own couches.  And I believe that God calls us to come out of our own holes and be together like this - to work together as one body for the healing of our communities and to find ways to share God's love with those who need it most.

And that is why when we do come together, make an effort, and create a community event like a parade or a festival, we usually feel more nourished than depleted when all is said and done.  Sure, it can tire us out, but it is also what makes life worth living.

I think our society has largely lost sight of the value of community and the pursuit of the common good.  That may be a subject for another day.  But today I want to give thanks for people who get up off the couch and do stuff for the good of the whole.  Thank you!  I really enjoyed the parade!